1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document conveyor for the transportation of a document around a corner. It further relates to such a transport mechanism for use in banking equipment for the transportation of checks and other documents which may have been subjected to crumpling and folding before being presented to the banking equipment. It yet further relates to an apparatus capable of dealing with dog-ears on documents to render a dog-eared document capable of transportation in conventional tracks.
2. The Prior Art
It is well-known in banking to employ check encoding machines for the automatic handling of checks and related documents. A check encoding machine is fed with a stack of checks, and the individual checks are transported throughout the machine for data to be read therefrom and to be stacked in an appropriate output pile. In order to minimize the size of such machines, it is necessary to deviate from the otherwise ideal construction of a single straight track, and to use a track including one or more curves. The checks or related documents are subjected to mechanical abuse by the public before receipt thereof by the banking system. The checks can be folded. Folds in a document impart mechanical strength to the document which it would otherwise not possess. There is, therefore, a problem in handling folded documents, particularly those having a fold or folds lying in the direction of transportation. Firstly the document, being folded, presents a larger effective cross-sectional area than would otherwise be expected and runs the risk of jamming against the sides of narrow openings which would otherwise accept the document. The fold or folds in the document impart longitudinal strength to the document which resists its forceable entry into an opening. When the limit of the mechanical strength of the folded document is overcome, the document can give way and collapse causing a jam in the document transport mechanism.
The transportation of a folded document can be achieved around corners of very large radius where the frictional opposing force of the folded document against the boundaries of the corner in opposition to the document's movement is insufficient either to stop the document or to cause its collapse. It is inefficient to build document processing equipment where documents are moved around large radii corners by virtue of the additional dimensions required of the equipment to accommodate the corners of large radii. It is therefore desirable to provide a document conveyor capable of moving documents, folded in a direction lying in the direction of transportation, around a corner of small radius.
A dog-ear is hereinbefore and hereinafter defined as a portion of the leading edge of a document folded out of the plane of the document.
Mishandling of checks and banking documents often means that a document becomes dog-eared, that is to say, that a corner of the document becomes folded out of the plane of the document. The dog-ear adds to the width of the document, and is able to prevent the ingress of the document into document-handling tracks. It is therefore desirable to provide an apparatus capable of rendering a dog-eared document suitable for transportation along a document track.